# Writing Women

> stories of radical feminisms


## Posts

- [Is My Love, Love?](https://writingwomen.co/is-my-love-love/): ‘Is My Love, Love?’ is our first print anothogy, co-created by feminist writers, artists, and organizers that explore the possibilities of love as liberation practice,  and world-making. We’re open to pitches that reimagine and re-articulate love. Is it affirming, honest, freeing? Does it transcend constructs and borders? Does it inspire new and imaginative futures? How do we actively create loving practices? We chose to anchor these collective explorations with questions because as Sara Ahmed reminds us, “To live a feminist life is to make everything into something that is questionable”   We believe ‘love’ has survived, and continues to survive, many […]
- [How Far Can a Constellation Stretch: Conversations/Dialogue/Mappings](https://writingwomen.co/how-far-can-a-constellation-stretch-conversations-dialogue-mappings/): In 2021 Kashmiri artist Mudasir Gul painted a large-scale graffiti work in Srinagar of a Palestinian woman beside the words ‘We are Palestine.’ He was subsequently arrested. While facing genocide in 2025, Palestinian writer Mariam Mushtaha calls for the world’s attention on Sudan, she writes, ‘Gaza and el-Fasher are not social media trends. They are not distant headlines or passing tragedies. They are wounds in our shared humanity.’ Also on a wall, this time in Gaza City, the words ‘Free Kashmir,’ were photographed in 2013.  Writer, scholar, elder, Angela Davis speaks of networked systems of solidarity between liberation movements. She […]
- [A Grammar of Knowing](https://writingwomen.co/a-grammar-of-knowing/): quest (n): a jury of inquest; investigation; an act or instance of seeking; pursuit, search (obsolete):  a person or group of persons who search or make inquiry Etymology: c. 1300, “an inquest, a judicial inquiry;” early 14c., “a search for something, the act of seeking, pursuit” (especially in reference to hounds seeking game in the hunt), from Old French queste “search, quest, chase, hunt, pursuit; inquest, inquiry” (12c., Modern French quête), properly “the act of seeking,” and directly from Medieval Latin questa “search, inquiry,” alteration of Latin quaesitus (fem. quaesita) “sought-out, select,” past participle of quaerere “seek, gain, ask” quest […]
- [Lost—In—Translation](https://writingwomen.co/lost-in-translation/): “I love you…” No… not like that… Love should be confessed in the motherhood of languages—the mother tongue—the way your great granddad said it to his wife;  Before the language of the colony dressed itself up as more elite, more romantic, more refined. Before your grandparents—forced— sold land, fled cities, and crossed borders.  Fleeing wars they did not start…  running away, and running toward the opposites of language. It’s undeniable—and frankly, repulsive—how the language of the coloniser has this sickening ability to water down the meaning, the intensity, and the sounds of indigenous feelings…  Feelings so often dismissed as savage. […]
- [The Violence of Translation: Rewritings of Empire, Caste and Patriarchy](https://writingwomen.co/the-violence-of-translation-rewritings-of-empire-caste-and-patriarchy/): Who tells your story decides how your story is told. A tale mutates each time it changes custodians. In this process of shape-shifting, a story is pried open, reshaped, rearranged, rewritten to make it palatable to the present. The inconvenient gets trimmed away. The anger gets softened. The pain gets poeticized. The political gets cauterized. Translation is seldom innocent. It can mean choosing, omitting, converting, even possessing. We find it everywhere, even in our oldest stories. In the Mahabharata, Shakuntala walks into a king’s court and claims her place. In Kalidasa’s retelling, she waits for fate to intervene. In The […]
- [What does movement say? Analysing Bharatanatyam as a Medium to Translate Justice](https://writingwomen.co/what-does-movement-say-analysing-bharatanatyam-as-a-medium-to-translate-justice/): The lights in the auditorium go off. The stage is set. We enter, hands and feet synchronised, with each other, and with the music. When we are on stage, we engage in a conversation  carried out entirely without words; one that is evocative and can express so much, without saying anything at all. This conversation unfolds on many levels. As dancers, we converse with ourselves, with each other as we dance, and with the audience, who eventually become part of the performance. I write this as a third generation Bharatanatyam dancer who has experienced many performances, both solo and group, […]
- [Lessons in Wave-Making: A Post-Pandemic Reading](https://writingwomen.co/lessons-in-wave-making-a-post-pandemic-reading/): The gestural marks of abstraction helped me to articulate the waves of feeling that exceeded — or at the very least resisted — language.  -Ara Osterweil Between Her Body and the Stain The paradigm of the wave is interdisciplinary. It permits an investigation into time, bodies, forms, and languages. It permeates desires of formlessness in writing, flesh and movement, and stages with force, many awkward encounters with memory. It reigns high over certain periods of your life, colouring them indiscriminately: years looped together toward a single movement of emotion. Waves can also cause insurmountable damage. They can compound an already […]
- [What Does it Mean to Translate That Which is on the Margins?](https://writingwomen.co/what-does-it-mean-to-translate-that-which-is-on-the-margins/): While sitting amidst the Trans-Himalayas in Ladakh, I came across this call for writings about  translation on my friend’s Instagram story. Incidentally, just before I saw this story, I had been using  both my own vocabulary, and AI assistance, to translate a piece of Classical Tibetan literature into English. So I found this call for submissions more than a little serendipitous. After all, translating Classical Tibetan literature requires prior knowledge of  the various religious and cultural symbols encoded within metaphors. Additionally, the aid of AI in my endeavour makes the task one beyond my human capabilities alone. In that sense […]
- [A Letter to my Daughter](https://writingwomen.co/a-letter-to-my-daughter/): Dear L, Well before  you were born, a part of me feared for you even while you were  in the womb. The minute I was told you were a girl, I thought about all the ways I would keep you safe. How I would move heaven and earth to make sure you were never alone, never unsafe, never violated. But those were my  physical worries.  Beyond that, I worried that as a South Asian girl, you would be born into a world that was eagerly waiting to hand over a pre-packaged burden to you. A burden that carries centuries of […]
- [Mother Tongue, Mother Rage](https://writingwomen.co/mother-tongue-mother-rage/): My mother never yells. She doesn’t throw things, slam doors, or deliver speeches about hurt. Her rage, when it comes, arrives as something else: measured silences, withdrawn affection, hands folding clothes faster than usual. It is not dramatic. It is not even declared. But it is unmistakable. There is a grammar to it. A pause that lingers too long in the air. A metal plate clangs just slightly harder than usual. Curtains are drawn in the middle of a bright day. I registered the change before I could name it. I was still learning vocabulary. But I knew the language. […]
- [“Sick Woman Theory”](https://writingwomen.co/sick-woman-theory/): ‘Sick Woman Theory’ borrows from the essay by Johanna Hedva of the same title. Hedva reframes the figure of the “sick woman” to encompass everyone excluded from the assumption of wellness and productivity, pointing out that capitalism thrives on bodies deemed disposable and makes care invisible. She argues that illness, disability, and care work are not marginal issues but deeply political, insisting that “the body and mind are sensitive and reactive to regimes of oppression, particularly our current regime of neoliberal, white-supremacist, imperial-capitalist, cis-hetero-patriarchy”  Here I endeavour to articulate our “sick woman theory,” a theory of intergenerational fatigue, of illness […]
- [The Idiot in the Fireplace: A Daughter’s Notes on Translating Memory, and the Inheritance of Silence](https://writingwomen.co/the-idiot-in-the-fireplace-a-daughters-notes-on-translating-memory-and-the-inheritance-of-silence/): On cold winter nights in Delhi, a Russian Idiot, an English Idiot, a Tamil Idiot and I would sit on the floor near the defunct fireplace in the drawing room of our government quarters: a literal quarter, carved out of a colonial bungalow once built for a single British sahib, now sliced into four homes to house four Indian families, as my grandmother sat working. She was translating Dostoevsky’s The Idiot to Tamil. I was barely eight at the time; old enough to laugh at the word idiot but too young to understand Russian despair. My grandmother is a Tamil […]
- [Impressions of the Letter](https://writingwomen.co/impressions-of-the-letter/): When I think of all the times I have shared misunderstandings with a friend or family member, I wonder about the gap between us and language. There is always a gap. We try our best to fill it. But our thoughts never fully translate. One often reduces language to a tool of communication or information exchange. But isn’t this what animals do? They communicate their hunger, pain, lust, through noises and gestures. They don’t gossip, narrate folklore, write fiction, or poetry, or critically review a body of work. That is a human trait, to create. And language is a register […]
- [Bargaining/ Manipulating Consent: Silent Warfare by Liberal/ Queer Men](https://writingwomen.co/bargaining-manipulating-consent-silent-warfare-by-liberal-queer-men/): content note for sexual violence. Before going on the date, before going to his place, before getting onto his bed, before making out, in all the spaces and gaps I told him, explicitly and clearly, “I don’t do penetrative sex”. He seemed understanding and respectful of my boundaries. Only to remove my pants and make his way down south. When  I asked him what he was doing he said “Oh, I thought everything else was fine”. For hours, he begged, pleaded, and passive aggressively noted that things would be “nice” if I simply removed my clothes. He made puppy faces, […]
- [Anu–baad, Translation](https://writingwomen.co/anu-baad-translation/): content note for sexual violence . My grandmother sits on the verandah, her legs spread out, descaling fish, one after another, after another, as the sunlight filters through the latticed-designed railings. I sit watching her, as she picks a fish, cuts through the middle, scrapes the scales, and now and then, sprinkles water on its shiny skin. Ilish, Hilsa, must not be washed too much, she says. I try to say, that’s how I feel after I make love in secret at the several rented hotels across the sprawling city. But I cannot. She would get hopeful, I know, and […]
- [Mirror](https://writingwomen.co/mirror/): I had imagined a tiny miracle: my mother, sitting cross-legged on the charpai, the fan creaking above her, holding a stapled copy of the translated text in her hands, nodding at the lines about voice, agency, and the politics of location. I imagined her pausing after every paragraph, looking up at me, smiling, as if to say, “Yes, I know this. I have lived this.”  That moment never arrived.  Instead, the words fell flat. They sounded foreign, even in Hindi. The language didn’t sound foreign in the sense of ‘English is foreign in my village,’ but rather foreign in the sense […]
- [The Oppressor’s Tongue](https://writingwomen.co/the-oppressors-tongue/): “Aapke paas paanch-das minute ka time hai kya? Mujhe Sassoon Dock ke baare mein jaankaari chahiye. (Could you spare 5-10 minutes? I need some information about Sassoon Dock),” began my conversation with Asha Tai, a Koli fisherwoman, as she sat under her umbrella, swatting the flies hovering over her fish. She seemed unsure at first, but agreed to talk.  I asked her how long she had been working at Sassoon Dock for (10 years), if she had lived there her whole life (yes), and what’s the best time to go fishing in the Arabian Sea (July to October). After gauging […]
- [A Caseworker’s Diary of Hope and Delusion](https://writingwomen.co/a-caseworkers-diary-of-hope-and-delusion/): I recently witnessed the birth of my niece. Her first look made me believe that there is a piece of that child in me who will fight the oceans to bring an equal world to her. I  realise this is the feminist labour of hope that I carry. That I have carried since the day I publicly called myself a naarivadi, a feminist.  It is interesting to note that my mother tongue, Gujarati, cannot fully translate the state of being feminist because the word closest, ‘naarivadi’ translates as the ‘ideology of feminism’, instead of being feminist, as an identity. I […]
- [Traditions of the Tongue, Translating a Lepcha Folk Song ‘Mutanchi Lungten’ ](https://writingwomen.co/traditions-of-the-tongue-translating-a-lepcha-folk-song-mutanchi-lungten/): My sister’s favourite Lepcha song is not any of the current, modern songs ruling the local charts. Hers is a folk song known as ‘Muntanchi Lungten.’  Written by elders, this song is for the future generations of the Lepcha. It is a plea to remember our roots, and not drift so far in the future that we are unmoored. Fewer and fewer people speak Lepcha, the language of our Indigenous people in Sikkim, but there are many efforts made to revive and retain our words and stories. We have a saying that a plant without roots is considered dead, similarly, […]
- [The Presence of your Absence: Grieving as Translation](https://writingwomen.co/the-presence-of-your-absence-grieving-as-translation/): There is a story—part musicology, part myth—that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Chaconne, the monumental final movement of his Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin, after returning from a journey to find his wife dead, and already buried. In this telling, Bach’s Chaconne is not only a composition, it is an act of mourning. A grief too large for words, translated into sound.  In fact, that is how I discovered this particular piece, in the terra incognita of my own grief, I turned to art to be my instrument of cartography. Music became a map for what […]
- [My Mother’s Everyday Acts of Resistance and Radical Friendships](https://writingwomen.co/my-mothers-everyday-acts-of-resistance-and-radical-friendships/): Pramila Shetty, a.k.a. Pamu, my mother, started cooking at an early age as a daily chore assigned by my Amma, her mother. She began cooking to feed her siblings not because she chose to, but because she had to. As the daughter of one of the five siblings,it became her responsibility. With her mother often unwell and the other siblings beginning to take on jobs outside the home, she stepped in to help my Amma (grandmother).  Years later, after marriage, cooking followed her not as passion, but as expectation. For women like her, care work wasn’t chosen; it was inherited. […]
- [The Taste of a Word You Cannot Say](https://writingwomen.co/the-taste-of-a-word-you-cannot-say/): Whether for the love of the story, or because of a colonial hangover we have yet to calm, children often grow up on fairytales that end with glass slippers and golden crowns. But my childhood was made of  রূপকথা (rupkotha), where snakes spoke in riddles, rivers turned into mothers, and girls outwitted kings.  My parents read to me in Bengali.  Not just bedtime tales, but entire worlds.  They handed me a language that smelled of mustard oil, sounded like rain on a tin roof, and knew how to say both ‘I missed you’ and ‘don’t do that again’ in the same […]
- [The Crow at the Beach](https://writingwomen.co/the-crow-at-the-beach/): “All Activists on the Freedom Flotilla have been Abducted by Israel” There is a crow at the beach. A murder on the shore. The cry is sudden, jarring, making my entire body jump. It doesn’t belong amidst the woosh of waves caressing the surf, the wind whispering between the palm fronds, the funky music playing on a never-ending loop from speakers somewhere behind us. Fresh juice, ice dripping inside, condensation falling on my knees, cheers and seashells littering the ground before me,  and there is a crow at the beach,  and Freedom has been captured.  There is a crow at the […]
- [The Dictionary of My Father’s Violence](https://writingwomen.co/the-dictionary-of-my-fathers-violence/): I never learned to grieve for my father. That language was perpetually distant to me. When my cousin told me that he had passed away, I went ahead with my day as usual. I got up from an untroubled sleep, folded the quilt, freshened up, and went downstairs to see what was going on. Everyone was crying aside from the men in the family, and me. I only felt  a hollow ache. No relief, no pain, no a sense of loss.  For years, I saw my silence as failure. I blamed myself for it. For the next decade, I used […]
- [Whose Language Is This?](https://writingwomen.co/whose-language-is-this/): छोरी चली परदेस, मायका सुना हो गया, आंगन की कोयल भी चुप, गीत अधूरा हो गया। Chhori chali pardes, maayka suna ho gaya, angan ki koyal bhi chup, geet adhoora ho gaya. The girl has gone abroad/ away her parents’ home is quiet/ empty the cuckoo in the courtyard is also silent, the song is incomplete.   I read ‘The Last Lesson’ for the first time in my twelfth-grade English class, somewhere between two poems already marked for memorization. I had no special expectations from it – just another colonial story, I thought, perhaps romanticized, perhaps tragic. But it began […]
- [Threading Identities](https://writingwomen.co/threading-identities/): Thread by thread, the intricate art of embroidery in Baloch society unfolds a profound language of identity, resistance, and belonging. Balochi embroidery is an ancient creative practice that sustains through collaborative participation. It not only celebrates individual artistry, but also translates into deeper threads of communal unity that structure social relationships across the region.  Women are central to this practice, they come together – friends, family, some visiting from neighboring areas – and sit together to embroider. They laugh, sing songs, exchange stories, share advice, and even burdens. Though they may fight, they still manage to overcome their differences. They […]
- [Unlearning Language, and Other Inheritances…](https://writingwomen.co/unlearning-language-and-other-inheritances/): Sometimes, I wonder if my grandmother still speaks to me. In 2022, the woman I knew as my grandmother was in her early seventies. She was still “young”, as my mother liked to remind us, when she was forcibly uprooted from her small two-bedroom flat in Kolkata, surrounded by trees, to the grey, lifeless urban sprawl of NCR where my parents lived. “She cannot take care of herself anymore. She cannot live alone,” said my mother. She was brought to her new home. Towards the end of her life, she was strapped to a narrow, hospital-style metal bed in one […]
- [Coded: Power, Impurity and Language in the Menstruation Conversation](https://writingwomen.co/coded-power-impurity-and-language-in-the-menstruation-conversation/): The language used to talk about menstruation is rarely neutral. Across cultures, fiction, law, and marketing, it is often coded, euphemised, and entangled in myths of impurity, shame, and secrecy. This language doesn’t just describe menstruation—it shapes how menstruators think about themselves. It becomes a way to regulate what can be said about women’s bodies, and, ultimately, a tool of control over women themselves. I first became aware of this coded speech growing up in Nairobi in a Kenyan-Asian family. We spoke a fluid mix of Kiswahili, English, and Gujarati—shifting between languages without needing to translate. Words like mboga (vegetables), […]
- [Walls that Scream and Whisper](https://writingwomen.co/walls-that-scream-and-whisper/): “Walls are publishers of the poor!” – this famous line by Eduardo Galeano, an Uruguayan journalist and writer echoes the ethos and exigencies of feminist publishing. Feminist, queer, anti-caste, labour, and other struggles of marginalised people whose voices have been historically invisiblised,  whitewashed, or crushed find unconventional ways of translating  their demands and resistance. When I first came to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),  in the winter of 2016, it was the sight of these posters, graffiti art and pamphlets (parchas) that caught my attention. They were colorful and bright- vocalising stories of people’s struggles, resilience and resistance. Across the campus […]
- [A Writing Women Group Reading of ‘Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India’ by K. Vaishali](https://writingwomen.co/a-writing-women-group-reading-of-homeless-growing-up-lesbian-and-dyslexic-in-india-by-k-vaishali/): Lovers of book clubs will know that the act of reading together makes for a special sort of alchemy. Last month our in-person book group read K. Vaishali’s memoir ‘Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India’ and for the first time, decided to write together as well.  So how do you weave multiple voices and perspectives into one write-up? We decided to share themes from our collective discussion, interspersed with words written by Vijaya, Sangeetha, Sarah, Shahana and Shymala. With the exception of quotes, each writer’s words are mixed in, as it would be in discussion, shared by all. […]
- [Even Breath is a Translation](https://writingwomen.co/even-breath-is-a-translation/): Inviting stories in creative nonfiction that explore the subject of translation, in and beyond language. We are particularly curious about these areas: What does it mean to translate intergenerational learning, grief, anger. What knowledge lives in our bones, and how do we articulate, and translate it?  Are there some things best left untranslated, when might translation be more extractive than bridging?  In what language do we understand and translate ecology, stories of the land, cultural folklore?  What are the power mechanics of translation? When and how are they resourced and who decides what may be translated, by whom, and for what […]
- [Understanding Indian Post-Colonial Identity Through Reading Habits](https://writingwomen.co/understanding-indian-post-colonial-identity-through-reading-habits/): Let’s travel to the India of the 1950s, a country redefining itself in the wake of a hard-fought victory. Decades of collective effort, hope, and sacrifice had reached their crescendo with the end of British rule at the stroke of midnight. The British were gone. What do you do when the world you knew is no more? What does a society do when its shared purpose dissolves?  In such a society, what do you write? What do you read? What do you dream about? Questions like these form the backbone of Everyday Reading: Hindi Middlebrow and the North Indian Middle […]
- [Testimonies of Women at the anti BT Act 1949 protest, Bodh Gaya.](https://writingwomen.co/testimonies-of-women-at-the-anti-bt-act-1949-protest-bodh-gaya/): The protest against the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949 continues at the Domuhan grounds, the first hearing of the writ petition filed in the Supreme Court—initially scheduled for 24th March—has now been postponed to 16th May. This protest is against the provision of BT Act, 1949 that mandates four out of eight people in the Managing Committee of Maha Bodhi Vihar to be Hindus, predominantly Brahmins. Led by All India Buddhist Forum (AIBF) and many Buddhist groups from all parts of the world are a part of the anti BT Act movement. The roadside sign directing towards the Mahabodhi […]
- [“This Land We Call Home” Exhumes the Personal and Elevates the Political ](https://writingwomen.co/this-land-we-call-home-exhumes-the-personal-and-elevates-the-political/): The protagonist Saleem Sinai’s fate in Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight’s Children (Jonathan Cape, 1981) is meticulously tied with what unfolds in the subcontinent. The unique circumstance of Sinai’s birth — for he was born at the stroke of the midnight hour on 15 August 1947, the exact moment when India freed itself from the British colonial rule — seems to both interfere with and inform the future of his birth country.  A familial story can act as — to borrow an optical phraseology — an aperture to expose the story of a nation at large, one can conclude. […]
- [A letter of Complaint, A Letter of Resistance](https://writingwomen.co/a-letter-of-complaint-a-letter-of-resistance/): I write a letter, not to a person, place, thing.  But a letter to a time. To a time with co-workers who were friends and allies. To several colleagues and team leaders, where we imagined a world of feminist solidarities together. Taking on the fight of recognizing, naming, visibilizing our labor, women’s labor and marginalized, invisible, emotional labor- in research, writing, projects, meetings, conversations, team work, and friendly banter.  There was labor in all of this, mine and your body laboring, invested in the politics of creating, building these relationships of care, of moving towards hope, justice and rights. Or […]
- [‘Teslam Eedek’](https://writingwomen.co/teslam-eedek/): I do not remember the first time I said ‘teslam eedek’ to my mother. It is quite a strange phrase when taken out of its Egyptian context but it can be used in so many different situations, by friends, coworkers, and strangers. You say it to the girl offering you a biscuit during Eid prayers and to the waiter or barista handing you your tea. Trying to explain it to others results in clunky near-misses and half-baked notions of what it means to thank and bless the hands that prepared your food.  If you put it into Google Translate right […]
- [Architects of Joy, Over and Over Again](https://writingwomen.co/architects-of-joy-over-and-over-again/): My mother and her sisters were born at a table where harm was never too far. It has been an eight seater for as long as I have been here. My grandmother used to sit at my grandfather’s left, just enough distance between them for a thrown cup to cut through her skin, just enough distance for her daughters to not reach forward in time to prevent the final memory of a wound. When guests are over and the seats run low, it is the sisters who get up from their chairs. The marks of late dinners have turned their […]
- [A Graduate's Denial](https://writingwomen.co/a-graduates-denial/): Some people graduate once in a generation.  My oldest memories are of seeing a room full of onions—or in this case, two-thirds of the house filled with onions harvested from our ancestral agricultural land in Unhel, Madhya Pradesh. I remember exactly how much land our family had, “बारह बीघा,” as my Dadi (paternal grandmother) would say with pride and a spark in her eyes. A simple Google search will tell you that 12 Bigha is roughly around 1.214 hectares, a calculation too advanced for my kid-brain, which was completely mesmerized by the sight of onions piled so high they touched […]
- [Migrant Women and Freedom](https://writingwomen.co/migrant-women-and-freedom/): Jyoti used to live in Gagodhar, a small village in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh. In her village, as soon as girls hit puberty, the elders start searching for grooms and arranging marriages. She was married to Ram at the age of 16. For the wedding, her in-laws borrowed and spent about 5 lakhs, and just two days after the wedding, the couple were told to start repaying the debt.  Jyoti and Ram migrated to Bhuj, Kutch in Gujarat, because her relatives mentioned there was work available almost every day. They believed expenses would be lower compared to big […]
- [Tired Mother and Technology](https://writingwomen.co/tired-mother-and-technology/): The picture of a standing mother in a kitchen is ubiquitous. From dawn till beyond dusk. I have always observed my mother, managing the household chores. I have heard stories of Ami before she got married as well, the way she used to take care of her joint family, like her mother. There is a famous story which is narrated during our family gathering. This one time Ami had gone with other women from the village to collect wood fire from the forest. While she was away, my maternal aunt came to see her. She gave me chicken pieces and […]
- [Disquiet of the Labouring Body](https://writingwomen.co/disquiet-of-the-labouring-body/): I  After a night’s sleep intermittently interrupted by sharp, penetrative period cramps, announcing the arrival of a difficult cycle, my alarm rings at 7 am. It reminds me of what lies ahead – the continuous performance of joy, flirtation, charm, and anything that makes the people I was about to meet feel cared for, wanted, desired.  As I begin my day at the cafe I work at, I dig into the performance of desire I learnt as an adolescent girl when boys in older grades would look at me, trying to sneak a peek of my cleavage, sometimes visible between […]
- [Keepers of the Womb](https://writingwomen.co/keepers-of-the-womb/): Hey, It has taken me months to pen this down—a letter I suppose I’m writing to you, to me, to her. I remember reading Chughtai’s Dust of the Caravan over coarse stitches around my rectal reservoir. The insides feel hollow, my organs dwindling amongst windy spaces. The torn muscle fibres post delivery screams of inflammation, puckered and raw. The stench of the bloodied scabs mixed with the cloying sweetness of my just-born just became unreal under the eerie glow of the birthing instruments overpowering the room. I remember Chugtai’s words that I wrote for you, me and her to revisit: […]
- [Recording Resistance: How Domestic Workers Use TikTok to Challenge Precarity in the Gulf](https://writingwomen.co/recording-resistance-how-domestic-workers-use-tiktok-to-challenge-precarity-in-the-gulf/): The machinery of our global capitalist economy is designed to exploit caregiving and domestic labor, while erasing the humanity of those who perform it. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the kafala system ties migrant workers’ legal status to their employers, restricting their rights and freedoms. This system, which governs the migration of women (primarily from poor and marginalised families of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa), creates a cycle of dependency by preventing workers from changing jobs or leaving the country without employer approval, effectively denying them autonomy. Often called the “feminization of migration,” this trend pushes women […]
- [Friendship and the Kitchen; Three Women and their Quest for Space](https://writingwomen.co/friendship-and-the-kitchen-three-women-and-their-quest-for-space/): Seeing my mother hate the kitchen and my aunt love it, I was very confused. Growing up, I couldn’t decide if liking it would betray my mother, or hating it would distance me from what I admired so much.  *  Why do you enter the kitchen?  “To check what’s in the fridge,” Armin, 9 (cousin)  “To see what my grandmother’s making,” Riza, 13 (cousin)  “To make coffee,” Nitin, 41 (uncle)  “To make tea,” says my mother. It wasn’t always so simple for her – this change from worrying about what to feed her family of four to simply making tea […]
- [Press(ing)work: The Labor Economics of Feminist Small Press Publishing in the Philippines](https://writingwomen.co/pressingwork-the-labor-economics-of-feminist-small-press-publishing-in-the-philippines/): Gantala Press, a Filipino women’s press that I founded while employed in a private library, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025. I reflect here on how we, in our smallness, continue to survive and resist a neoliberal economy and culture as we join the Filipino people’s struggle for national liberation.  Gantala is an old Tagalog word for “spool” (a reel for thread used in weaving or sewing, works commonly attributed to women). In 2016, a year after our establishment, Rodrigo Duterte came to power and began his attacks on the poor through the “war on drugs” and on activists through […]
- [In Begumpura, their bodies shall find rest.](https://writingwomen.co/in-begumpura-their-bodies-shall-find-rest/): For an audio-visual project on outward migration from Bihar, I was speaking to professor Brahma Prakash, a writer and  Professor at JNU, over a Zoom meeting. He said, “…Britishers took people from working class-caste/Dalit-Bahujans, as labourers to their plantation fields in Caribbeans. They knew that Brahmins and other upper castes were not generationally trained for such kind of labour…” The upper castes (non Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi), especially Brahmins, traditionally posed as an intellectual elite and through the privileges of the Caste System, were exempted from manual labour. Such division of labour which was held intact by the caste-based segregation of work and […]
- [Boiling Water: for Tea and The Enemy](https://writingwomen.co/boiling-water-for-tea-and-the-enemy/): For the longest of times, women are portrayed… No. Not even portrayed. Simply, “Women belong to the kitchen,” they say—a phrase that can be traced back to Eve, who was deemed good for nothing but plucking an apple from forbidden trees. Her granddaughters, too, were confined to domestic tasks: collecting berries, cooking soups, and brewing mint tea. In my house, it was always clove tea, its scent a reminder of home.  My grandma smiles as she poured tea- “The kitchen is the powerhouse of our home.”  The kitchen.. The kitchen.. The bloody kitchen and women belonging merely to it. The […]
- [Hands That Hold a Marketplace ](https://writingwomen.co/hands-that-hold-a-marketplace/): The marketplace is not merely a place of trade; it is a realm of labor, endurance, and negotiation: a living organism held together by the hands of women. These hands, aged and calloused or youthful and nimble, are the unsung architects of economies. On my last visit to Mysore’s iconic Devaraja Market, I was struck by the vibrancy of life unfolding within its bounds. Built in 1886 and spanning 3.67 acres, this historic market holds generations of stories within its wooden rafters and stone masonry walls. From fragrant piles of Mysuru Mallige (Mysore jasmine) to conical stacks of vibrant kumkum […]
- [Found but Lost in the Labyrinth of Butter](https://writingwomen.co/found-but-lost-in-the-labyrinth-of-butter/): Asako Yuzuki’s Butter lures readers in with its hypnotic bright yellow cover, much like margarine. The blurb reads like a mystery thriller where one might expect our protagonist Rika Machida, to eventually brandish her serial killer prowess, like Manako Kaji, the woman condemned by the court and society as the mastermind behind the deaths of three lonely businessmen. However, what unfolds is a much more complex journey, both in psyches and taste buds. “There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.” The first half of the novel builds a complex, critical and compelling view into […]
- ["There She Goes," Reviewing The Feminist Killjoy Handbook by Sara Ahmed](https://writingwomen.co/there-she-goes-reviewing-the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-by-sara-ahmed/): A handbook is an assortment of guidelines or instructions on a specific topic. But a handbook on killing joy? Who exactly is a killjoy, and why do we need a guide to help us become one?  The myths surrounding what makes women happy (i.e. marriage, caregiving, housework) have historically been shot down, critiqued and reimagined by feminism. By refusing to ‘get in line’ the feminist killjoy destroys other people’s happiness; as Sara Ahmed states, she is a spoilsport.  In The feminist Killjoy handbook, Sara Ahmed offers instructions, knowledge, and direction about life in the world, rather than offering tips on […]
- [Women, Labour, and Resistance, Inviting Writing](https://writingwomen.co/women-labour-and-resistance/): For some, Women, Labour, and Resistance may seem like disconnected terms—each standing alone, with no meaningful overlap. Others might even find the notion of linking them together absurd. And those who hold that view may feel this call isn’t for them. This call speaks to those who see the threads that tie these words together. It’s for those who understand the hidden realities beneath the surface, beyond the obvious, and against the grain of convention. This call is for women who live those realities.  The first time I truly stood face to face with the powerful storm that these three […]
- [Call for Submissions](https://writingwomen.co/call-for-submissions/): We’re ending the year with this call for inspiration.  Every year it feels we are dragged further into the hellish imagination of an unchecked ruling class, but every year, powerful shows of resistance are forged by ordinary people. More than often it is ordinary women at the margins of class, caste, gender, race and more, who pour their labour into dreaming new worlds into being. This call is an attempt to honour these voices, recognize this labour, and to share these stories so they may light more fires, and make real, new dreams.    This call is co-edited with Writing Women […]
- [Letter to LoC-Kashmir](https://writingwomen.co/letter-to-loc-kashmir/): After nearly three years, I came to see you. I was certain that you would overwhelm me by the massive military presence, the series of checkpoints, the frisking, and having to prove my identity to those guarding you. Yes, it did, but I really wish you didn’t. This time I was surprised that the road leading towards you has become tech-savvy; instead of being excited, it made me insecure. “What do you do with all this data?” I asked the first soldier I saw, who took my photo with an ID-card held in my hands. He reassured me that all […]
- [Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley: Stories from Bastar and Kashmir by Freny Manecksha, Book Review](https://writingwomen.co/flaming-forest-wounded-valley-stories-from-bastar-and-kashmir-by-freny-manecksha-book-review/): “A bold account of those who dare to tell their stories of struggle, and even go to jail for doing so.” The book opens with this powerful statement, setting the tone for what the readers can expect: a deep exploration of the human spirit amidst the harsh realities of two regions most heavily militarized by the Indian State – Bastar and Kashmir. The theme of her work, as she states, is “how places and spaces are impacted by the politics of a nation and how people fight to reclaim them.” *This article covers topics of sexual assault and violence  Flaming […]
- [The Many Lives of Syeda X: Whose Story Is It Anyway?](https://writingwomen.co/the-many-lives-of-syeda-x-whose-story-is-it-anyway/): The aromas of different spices and herbs engulfed all my senses the moment we stepped foot in the area. We were at the Khari Baoli market as a part of our monthly ritual—on the first weekend of every month, Chachajaan would drive my brother and I on his old scooter to this market in Old Delhi to shop for household necessities before we made a stop at Gianni’s for ice cream. The Baoli, better-known as one of the most popular wholesale markets for spices, herbs and nuts in India, was always bustling with people—with vendors selling their goods, families doing […]
- [Transnational Truth-Telling as Sanity](https://writingwomen.co/truth-and-solidarity-as-sanity/): Two books, this week, have kept me sane.  One is Michelle Good’s collection of seven essays about Indigenous life in Canada aptly titled ‘Truth Telling,’ and the other is Isabella Hammad’s ‘Recognizing the Stranger.’ Unsurprisingly the truth telling work of Indigenous writers such as Michelle Good would sit side by side with that of Palestinian writers such as Isabella Hammad. Both struggles mirror the brutalities of a settler colonial state built on racism and exploitation. And both speak to a deep and unshrinkable resistance to live wholly and willfully.    Michelle Good’s Truth Telling should be taught in schools across Turtle […]
- [Open Call for Book Reviews](https://writingwomen.co/open-call-for-book-reviews/): “Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies” –Nawal El-Saadawi, Memoirs from the Women’s Prison. How has your reading measured up to the truth around you? How has it not? Introducing an open call for book reviews that explore truth in writing. Reviews and books by people or communities willfully sidelined and misrepresented by mainstream media are especially welcome.  Share your feminist, decolonial, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, or poetry reads with us, we’ll be featuring selected pieces on a rolling basis till the end of the year. Reviews should be between 800-1200 words, and selections will be paid […]
- ['Dilli Ki Sair'](https://writingwomen.co/dilli-ki-sair/): ‘Dilli Ki Sair’ is an audio rendition by Afreen Akhtar of the eponymous Urdu short story written by Rashid Jahan in 1932 for Angarey, an anthology that birthed the Progressive Writers Movement in India. This feminist short story ‘Dilli Ki Sair’, unusual for the times, was banned. The story is from the perspective of a woman who shares her experience of being subjected to the male gaze at a railway station in Delhi. This audio was made in collaboration with five women, all sharing the common experience of the protagonist’s unease as a woman in public spaces, subject to the […]
- [Spill the Tea and Make Oral History ](https://writingwomen.co/spill-the-tea-and-make-oral-history/): Let me break a poorly kept secret—most of us love to gossip. We may not like to admit it, but a little drama or tea does get our hearts fluttering with intrigue. Though gossip is a common (I’d push to say prevalent) part of our lives, one that boosts camaraderie and shares vital social information, it is pushed aside as useless, unsubstantiated, and unbecoming. Undoubtedly, since it is typically seen as a gendered practice attributed to women, it is considered an invaluable information source. However, I argue that gossip is not only valuable for understanding social attitudes, but also crucial […]
- [Kolam Diaries: On Symmetry, Beauty and Reimagining Traditions](https://writingwomen.co/kolam-diaries-on-symmetry-beauty-and-reimagining-traditions/): In Tamil Nadu, the vaasal or threshold of a house is an integral space where internal and external energies converge, holding the potential for luck and prosperity. It is the juncture between home and beyond, and where as part of their morning ritual, women of the household draw kolam: symmetric patterns of dots, lines, curves that connect tradition, habit and hope.  Amidst vague and conflicting theories on the origins of kolam, the most certain, ancient historical evidence of its existence is in Tamil Sangam literature (300 BCE to 300 CE). It is believed that kolams were drawn during the ‘brahma […]
- [Women on Partition: Fictional Accounts of a Lived Gendered Experience](https://writingwomen.co/women-on-partition-fictional-accounts-of-a-lived-gendered-experience/): The Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 ignited one of history’s largest forced migrations and with it, a wave of violence that would leave women particularly vulnerable. Feminist researchers have documented women’s experiences during this period but fiction writers have not been far behind in basing their stories on the experiences of women during Partition. Stories of widowhood, kidnapping, rape, recovery and restitution of women help weave a tapestry of female suffering and strength. These stories, primarily based in western India though a few venture eastward, delve into the complex emotions of women navigating the chaos of Partition. Confusion, […]
- ['Writing a Poem which Feels like Lighting a Pyre,' 'Pandemic Ghazal,' and 'Bhetki,' Three Poems](https://writingwomen.co/writing-a-poem-which-feels-like-lighting-a-pyre-pandemic-ghazal-and-bhetki-three-poems/):  
- [A Mic of One’s Own; Women-Centric Media as an Instrument of Justice ](https://writingwomen.co/a-mic-of-ones-own-women-centric-media-as-an-instrument-of-justice/): Justice is essential for a feminist (re)imagination of society. One that forges a just world for all across the spectrum of gender identity. For critical feminist scholars, gender has to also co-exist with understandings of class, race, and in the Indian context, caste. Justice is not one-dimensional. Intersectionalities of caste and class influence gender relations, and gender relations influence caste and class realities. But how do we better understand the lived realities of those of us seeking justice, outside of a gaze dominated by patriarchy, colonialism or capitalistic ideals? We do this through stories.  The mainstream media however, cannot be […]
- [Graffiti Ghazal](https://writingwomen.co/graffiti-ghazal/)
- [A Sisterhood of Women and the Tallest Flying Bird](https://writingwomen.co/a-sisterhood-of-women-and-the-tallest-flying-bird/): There are many stories of Indigenous communities and  their relationship with nature and wildlife, reflecting their intellectual and emotional knowledge. Different communities exhibit a range of stories about their interactions with wildlife in the region and gender plays an important part in studying human-wildlife coexistence.  Existing literature says that the sharing of landscapes has different implications for both women and men, highlighting how women possess their own differentiated form of ecological knowledge. This plays a role in shaping attitudes and  perceptions towards wildlife.  Gender roles and responsibilities influence the use of natural resources and the nature of human-wildlife interactions. Understanding […]
- [There is Something](https://writingwomen.co/there-is-something/)
- ['Identity' and 'Feelings,' Two Poems](https://writingwomen.co/identity-and-feelings-two-poems/)
- [Celebrate Silver](https://writingwomen.co/celebrate-silver/): The Celebrate Silver project began with Peter Butrus Zabaneh.  Nancy wanted her father’s inspiring life documented in a keepsake book for posterity. So, I went over to meet and interview the 86-year old gentlemen. The willing eagerness with which he sat to narrate the story of his lived experience was truly endearing.  He shared several heart-warming memories, most painful of which centred on leaving his beloved home in Ramla city in 1948 during the horrific Palestinian Nakba. Peter was only 12 at the time.  Twinkling eyes radiating a soft joy, Peter laughed as he recalled how he  fractured his arm […]
- [Remembrance of Two Men](https://writingwomen.co/remembrance-of-two-men/): Yaad-e-maazi azaab hai ya rab Cheen lay mujhse hafiza mera (Lord, the memory of the past is a great torment.  Erase my every memory.) On looking through the window in the early hours of dawn, I looked closely at the tree which had started to bloom. It was mid-spring and the trees were flowering. From an Islamic pattern carved out at the entrance of the gate, I remembered a loud thud that I heard on a Saturday. It was evident that I had to open the gate and see if my mother was home from work. To my surprise, I […]
- ['My Accent Speaks for Me' and 'Job Interviews', Two Poems](https://writingwomen.co/my-accent-speaks-for-me-and-job-interviews-two-poems/)
- [A Palestinian House](https://writingwomen.co/a-palestinian-house/)
- [Cleaning the Room](https://writingwomen.co/cleaning-the-room/): Scatter-brained last night, And astride a dragon, I hoped to never think of cleaning the room, Only take note of the two crows fighting and each moment martyred to the next. But the truth of October was only under a billion moments of work, That I swept out, broom-armed, again and again. Till late spring, when my grandmother said that she only ever swept in, And rubble heaped there, all the way to the underbed depths. That is what we slept on, the family— Her truths. I made note of each Which is all I own now, added to my […]
- [​Cooking as means of Remembering and Recording: Visuals from a Bangaal kitchen](https://writingwomen.co/cooking-as-means-of-remembering-and-recording-visuals-from-a-bangaal-kitchen/): I have heard that my great grandparents’ house in Jhinaidah, Khulna, Bangladesh, was in a quaint neighbourhood nestled within taro gardens and betel leaves. But neither I, nor my parents have ever been there. Yet, I feel my roots are there. Some nights, at the dinner table, my family reminisces the memories of a home we’ve never been to. Most of the stories inevitably revolve around the nostalgic food of Opaar (the other side of the border). Between  September and October of the tumultuous year that was 1947,  refugees flooded West Bengal from East Bengal. It is usually the festive […]
- [The Story of Two Griefs](https://writingwomen.co/the-story-of-two-griefs/)
- [From Body To Paper: How and Why Godna](https://writingwomen.co/from-body-to-paper-how-and-why-godna/): “गोदना पेंटिगं से पहले गोदना जानो, ये हम सब का गहना है, सब पीछे छूट जाएगा, बस ये ही साथ ले जाएंगे हम” [Before knowing about the Godna painting, learn about Godna /Tattoo, this is our jewelry, everything will be left behind, only this we will take with us] ~ Local Women Artists of Dusadh Community   This was one of the most impactful things I heard from the local Godna artists during my masters dissertation fieldwork in Bihar in 2020-2022; the way they talked about Godna, the tattoo that was embedded over their bodies, hands, forehead, and neck, and […]
- [Handprint](https://writingwomen.co/handprint/): note for sexual violence    it broke me  when he touched me  on my back – on my bottom  on that lonely street,  at that odd time,  asking,  “shall we have sex?”    ‘sex’ was one thing  i had not known at ten    i headed home,  i informed amma.*  ‘something that was not supposed to happen happened’ was her reaction.  indeed! it was not supposed to happen  but, it happened.    yet, why did amma’s reaction make me feel as though  it was my fault  to walk boldly  on that lonely street,  at that odd time?    oh, the […]
- [You owe me hope, I owe you rage ](https://writingwomen.co/you-owe-me-hope-i-owe-you-rage/): I carry rage when I am told “learn to take a joke, woman”. “Oh, please do not behave like those liberal elite feminists, because I always respect women”. I carry rage when men doing the ‘bare minimum’ and calling themselves feminists, can get away when they are called out.  Rage when men can joke about women’s bodies, or slap women “jokingly”, Rage when getting groped in a crowd is easier than getting a job that pays,  Rage when “there is no humanity left” has become an oxymoron and bodies continue to be raped and burnt   I carry rage when […]
- [Ode to the Woman Who Persisted](https://writingwomen.co/ode-to-the-woman-who-persisted/): My life took a deadly beautiful turn to cross paths with Arundhati Roy, and I haven’t come across anything more dangerous or satisfying since. She published  The God of Small Things which won the Booker Prize in 1997 and I was born in 1998; I was born in the post-Roy era. She slowly  happened to me during the formative years of my life. She got on my nerves. She consumed me. It has been quite a ride since.  I absolutely adore the way she carries herself. Often we, women of colour, are penalised for every little anti-Victorian bodily and behavioural feature […]
- ['All the Things I Am', and 'Journey of a Poem'](https://writingwomen.co/all-the-things-i-am-and-journey-of-a-poem/): All the Things I Am  I am the criminal,  Covering her evidences of old age on her head, with henna.  I am the colour of your mother’s favourite dupatta.  I am the unappealing cleavage, which instantly makes me a part of your mind’s sex tape.  I am the rusty old Jhumkas sold in the markets of Gariahat.  I am the elbow who kicked you when you tried groping her in the crowded public bus.  I am the taste of nimbu shikanji on a hot summer day.  I am the lipstick on her teeth and unshaved underarms.  I am your not-so […]
- [Exploring Memoirs by South Asian Women](https://writingwomen.co/exploring-memoirs-by-south-asian-women/): A dialogue from one of my favorite movies goes like this, “We forget things if we have no one to tell them to.” As much as I love ‘The Lunchbox’, this line has stayed with me long after the characters leave the screen. It makes me think, who better than a whole array of readers then, to tell your life story to? It’s a renewed chance of looking at your life choices through a different lens and going through the motions of your emotions again. As for the reader, it is all about reading real-life stories just so different from our […]
- [Yellow Oleander, Rose-Ringed Parakeet  and Half-moons (Three Poems)](https://writingwomen.co/yellow-oleander-rose-ringed-parakeet-and-half-moons-three-poems/): Yellow Oleander    Because boys don’t read anymore,  how Prophet helped Khadeeja with house chores,  sucking acid out of their sippy cups, look at ’em  pulling out their phones to seek wisdom  from a jacked man’s rapist tone.    Oh my people name their girls  after goddesses or a flower, do their braids  like grapevines tied to a bower. Mamma told me  the day I was leaving she’s a bird keeper,  love is an act of unlocking and praying  for a poacher with a shotgun won’t shot me down. Note down, school girls should only care  about boy bands and […]
- [Doing Decolonisation: An African Feminist Perspective](https://writingwomen.co/doing-decolonisation-an-african-feminist-perspective/): Throughout my time as a university student, it became abundantly clear that emotions were to  be left out of theorising and research. As students of the humanities, we were required to read  and observe to come up with and analyse theories. However, in my fourth year at university, I did an African Feminist Theory course in English Literature and my eyes were opened wide to how I could use my experience to theorise. I bore witness to black women writers such as Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, Obioma Nnaemeka, Yvette Abrahams, Barbara Boswell and Zoe Wiccomb writing in a way that made so […]
- [our kafan in waterless washing machine](https://writingwomen.co/our-kafan-in-waterless-washing-machine/): we part our hair the same way from the middle, with a broken tip of our  ancestor’s bodkin   you look a lot like my mother and i look a lot like your aunt who looks a lot like  your grandfather. when you run out of lagging cassettes, we listen to the songs  of crickets, sitting in the verandah of your uncle who is battling parkinsons.  when he serves us kashmiri chai, we drink the remnants of it from the tray one  bitter sip after another while you tell me he looks a lot like your paralyzed  mother. we always face […]
- [what do i write about now](https://writingwomen.co/what-do-i-write-about-now/): trigger warning: for themes of transition, body dysphoria, transphobia notes titled “what do i write about now?”   what do i write about now? about how i have longed  to be wished on women’s day  though i care not for ‘days’?   what do i write about now? about the constant invalidation(s) i face  the creeping self-doubts that plagues my womanhood?  am i trans enough? am i woman enough?   what do i write about now? about how my body feels triggered and invalidated  each time someone remarks on an essentializing definition  of ‘womanhood’?   what do i write about […]
- [The Prisons We Break: Records of Seditious Friendships](https://writingwomen.co/the-prisons-we-break-records-of-seditious-friendships/): ‘Mulaqat is a time  When women visit men in prison  And no one visits the women in prison…’ Prison remains one of the central metaphors in feminist herstories. Prisons caging our bodies, minds, souls; prisons shackling us within family, within marriage, within gender roles, with norms and ‘morales’ of society; prisons of love, prisons of protection – all equally violent gnawing at our wings, limiting our flight, reigning in our rage, our speech, our imagination. Feminist herstories are about these unfreedoms and the prisons we break. It is about the unwavering hope of razing prisons to the ground. But who […]
- [For the Record](https://writingwomen.co/for-the-record/): Today, I pen this for the records and not for the “Records.”  For I do not comprehend the Records.  How do I make sense of the Records?  I am invisible in the Records.  The Records ignore me.  The Records forget me.  The Records failed to accept and acknowledge me.  I am but a plant in the Records, existing with so much impact yet barely recognized. Why then would I write for the Records?    So I write for the records.  I am invincible in the records.  I am never subdued in the records.  The records regard me.  I am a […]
- [Be Outrageous: Anger and Resistance to Epistemic Injustice](https://writingwomen.co/be-outrageous-anger-and-resistance-to-epistemic-injustice/): While engaged in serious conversation has someone ever said to you, “Are you sure?” or, “You’re overstating things” or “Don’t get so worked up, calm down.” In interpersonal relationships, this kind of scepticism could be justified. But what if there is a pattern to who gets questioned, and how. What happens when some voices are silenced in the broad social structure more than others? The term for this is ‘epistemic injustice,’ and it’s one of the ways that marginalization, or the act of othering, manifests itself. An audience’s rejection of the lived experience of the marginalized, either knowingly or unknowingly, […]
- [Translations](https://writingwomen.co/translations/): “Si ri ri ri, haawaa chalchha” / “सिरिरिरी हावा चल्छ” My attempt at translating it: ⁠The wind howls as it blows. ⁠The wind is howling. I look at the words and read them out loud Correct meaning, lost essence.   Last night, a friend told me that the language they think in and the language they “have to” speak in are different. I think about the language I think in. Almost naturally, English comes to mind. Then, I think about things that are not thoughts. Feelings, perhaps. Emotions. Responses. Defences. I think about expressions that I learned from my mother. […]
- [Khuded Geet of Garhwal](https://writingwomen.co/khuded-geet-of-garhwal/): Women in Uttarakhand perform labor-intensive work throughout their lives. They collect fodder for cattle, take them out for grazing, and collect firewood and drinking water. Along with other household chores and child care duties, they are responsible for farming and cattle rearing. Their accounts are not recorded in any written documents. While the British colonizers did the extensive recording of physical features, and modern period historians provided information about the lives of men living in the hills, the accounts of women are glaringly missing. We will not find their stories in written documents, but a rich record of their struggles […]
- [Two Poetry Books by Women from Sikkim and Nagaland](https://writingwomen.co/two-poetry-books-by-women-from-sikkim-and-nagaland/): “Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change.”  -Audre Lorde, Poetry is not a Luxury Here I talk about two poetry books by women from Sikkim and Nagaland who express their views on topics of roots, originality, girlhood and womanhood. These poets, Tenzin Yanchen Bhutia and Elongshila Jamir, talk about their lives, mental health and experiences thriving for peace while living up to society’s expectations. A BOOK OF EMOTIONS, BY TENZIN YANCHEN BHUTIA (SIKKIM) Published in 2023 “A Book of Emotions” is a collection […]
- [Recording Refusals](https://writingwomen.co/recording-refusals/): My Dictaphone was a crutch. I was so afraid to lose any piece of information that would allow me to make an “original” contribution that I recorded everything I heard on the field on a black Dictaphone. The little black box was a strange object, sitting apart from the conversation, yet catching it to be extracted later for my thesis. The strange, unseemly object has a strange, unseemly name – Dictaphone. But we don’t dictate to it, it dictates to us. The Dictaphone symbolises colonial and capitalist logics, dare I say, patriarchal logics of what Eve Tuck and K.Wayne Yang […]
- [From the River to the Sea, A Tribute to Tatreez](https://writingwomen.co/from-the-river-to-the-sea/): “Your culture is not what your hands touch or make – it’s what moves your hands” –  Tyson Yunkaporta in Sand Talk, a book I loved last year. Photos of Palestinian women intently stitching brought those words back. This painting is my small tribute to the powerful Resistance that threads its way through the centuries-old indigenous art form of Tatreez (Arabic: تطريز). Traditional Palestinian embroidery known as Tatreez has lived through centuries, passed down from mothers to daughters. As an art form inseparable from its people, tatreez holds the history and culture of Palestine in every stitch. To quote Jenna Abuelhaija, a Palestinian […]
- [Feminists in Solidarity with Palestine](https://writingwomen.co/feminists-in-solidarity-with-palestine/): If your feminism is selective it is not feminism at all. Celebrating some of the poets and writers who have always shown up for Palestine and show us what solidarity looks like.  Pay close attention to June Jordan’s poem, it could have been written today.  
- ["Thank You for Your Tears, but I Don't Want Your Sadness"](https://writingwomen.co/thank-you-for-your-tears-but-i-dont-want-your-sadness/): “Thank you for your tears, but I don’t want your sadness. Nor do I want your money. Please save that for the people in your own country who need it. My people have dignity and don’t want your pity. We’re not the victims. The brainwashed Israeli soldier who carries his rifle and shoots with no humanity-he’s the real victim. We want you to see us as the freedom fighters we are, so you can support us the right way.” Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi gave this message to a group in South Africa after a documentary screening featuring the peaceful protests […]
- [Amrita Sher-Gil, Feminist Legacies](https://writingwomen.co/amrita-sher-gil-feminist-legacies/): Born to a Sikh aristocratic father and a Hungarian mother in 1913 in Budapest, Amrita Sher-Gil straddled multiple worlds to hone her revolutionary artistic style that blended traditional Indian and Western sensibilities.   India in the 1930s and 40s was on the threshold of great change, and Amrita’s art and life reflected these times. She trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, yet, it was her rich encounters in India, the Indigenous frescoes at Ajanta caves, and her thirst for the deep colours of the land that ultimately inspired her extraordinary work.   Her passion and charm were renowned, and […]
- [Graphic Archives of Feminist Movements Around the World](https://writingwomen.co/graphic-archives-of-feminist-movements-around-the-world/): This collection of graphic stories illustrate Indigenous women’s movements and struggles that are so powerful and so staggeringly minimized in history.   Reading about female elders in the Kalinga region of northern Philippines as they fought to protect the river, or of Dolores Cacuango and the symbol of resistance she became as Mama Dula for the Kichwa community in Ecuador, or of Shanti Chaudhary’s dedication to a life of writing and law, all of these herstories will leave you feeling thoroughly inspired. Each of the stories are written and illustrated by different folx and the overall collection is edited by Sonja […]
- [The Revolutionary Friendship of Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh](https://writingwomen.co/the-revolutionary-friendship-of-savitribai-phule-and-fatima-sheikh/): Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh broke all the rules of their times. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, in the state of Maharashtra, they began India’s first girls’ school called the Indigenous Library in Fatima Sheikh’s home. In doing so they unapologetically defied Brahmanical and patriarchal oppression and made history as India’s first female teachers.  The profound achievements of Savitribai Phule and husband, Jyothiba Phule, as the founders of India’s first school for girls is widely recognized. Their struggle for anti-casteist education for girls in a society drenched in casteism and patriarchy paved the way for Dalit and […]
- [Seven Times South Asian Film & TV got Female Friendships Right](https://writingwomen.co/seven-times-south-asian-film-tv-got-female-friendships-right/): Queen (2013) Finding a good girl friend is amazing in itself, but finding one while you’re on a trip by yourself is even more amazing! Rani and Vijaylakshmi in the movie ‘Queen’ are one such example. The line “Vijay nahi toh kya hua? Vijaylakshmi toh hai!” probably warmed all your hearts as it did mine. Pink (2016) Personally, I love courtroom dramas. And ‘Pink’ stood out not only for its much-needed theme on sexual consent, but also for its particular kind of female friendship, had with roommates. In college or while working in another city, roommates become your confidantes and […]
- [Small Town Matters](https://writingwomen.co/small-town-matters/): I grew up in a small town where you can always find the neighbors, especially the aunties, in everybody’s business. I hated that in my hometown, everybody knows everybody and their business. I couldn’t wait to graduate high school and go to university so I could escape my father’s anger and the neighbors who had nothing better to do than band together and talk about other people’s lives, as if theirs were any better – albeit temporarily. It was very annoying that everyone around those aunties couldn’t exist in peace because of them. But, as I got older, I realized […]
- [May Ziyadah and Malak Hifni Nasif: A Literary Liaison](https://writingwomen.co/may-ziyadah-and-malak-hifni-nasif-a-literary-liaison/): In this article I am writing about a beautiful ‘Literary Liaison’ between two extremely illustrious Arab women writers—May Ziyadah and Malak Hifni Nasif— who not only challenged the norms of the society but even paved the way for future Arab women writers to voice their opinions fearlessly. These women set an example of how two women can support and admire each other in their literary journey and strife of transforming the society.   Malak Hifni Nasif, born in 1886, well known by her nom de plume Bahithat al Badiyah, (Scholar of the Desert) was one of the most prominent and forthright […]

## Pages

- [Anthology of Love](https://writingwomen.co/anthologyoflove/): Call for pitches for our first print anthology! Deadline: March 15 2026 Is My Love, Love?’ is an anthology project co-created by feminist writers, artists, and organizers that explore the possibilities of love as liberation practice,  and worldmaking.  Our question is an invitation to reimagine and re-articulate love. Is it affirming, honest, freeing? Does it transcend constructs and borders? Does it inspire new and imaginative futures? How do we actively create loving practices? We chose to anchor these collective explorations with questions because as Sara Ahmed reminds us, “To live a feminist life is to make everything into something that is […]
- [Community](https://writingwomen.co/about-2/community/): Artwork for Palestine, Sudan and Liberation Efforts Everywhere Radical reading and reflection is incomplete without actions that help build the systems of care we imagine for our world. It is also incomplete if we do not engage meaningfully and critically with the social, economic and political systems of our time. We write this in 2024, a year that will no doubt be recorded in history as the year where the most publicly enacted genocide was enabled by the most powerful countries, and another was sidelined, and invisibilized  by a racist media. As a literary space we stand for Palestine, Sudan, […]
- [Writing Sisterhood](https://writingwomen.co/writing-sisterhood/): Writing Sisterhood (Series #1) Reading Options Let’s be Friends FOR UPDATES Sign up to our monthly newsletter for new features, calls for submissions, recommendations, writer spotlights and more Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Your Name *Email *Website SUBSCRIBE
- [Recommended Reading](https://writingwomen.co/recommended-reading/): readings and recommendations Reading Options Let’s be Friends FOR UPDATES Sign up to our monthly newsletter for new features, calls for submissions, recommendations, writer spotlights and more Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Your Name *Email *Name SUBSCRIBE
- [SUBMISSIONS](https://writingwomen.co/submissions/): How to Submit Contributions that encourage collective learning on cis and trans women, and non-binary people’s stories and community storytelling methods are welcome through specific ‘calls for submissions’ or as part of rolling submissions.  Throughout the year you can submit profiles of storytellers or reviews of books/ writings by racialized cis, trans women or non-binary people. If selected your piece will be featured on the writing women Instagram page and on our online journal here. These submissions are unpaid. Specific calls for submissions are released one to two times a year, and are focused on a specific theme.  Selected pieces in […]
- [Contact](https://writingwomen.co/contact-2/): Contact Us We\’re Ready, Let\’s Talk. Contact Info Address​ 123 Fifth Avenue, NY 10160, New York, USA Email Us contact@example.com​ Call Us 800-123-456 Follow Us Facebook-f Twitter Youtube
- [Features](https://writingwomen.co/features/): features
- [Book Clubs](https://writingwomen.co/bookclubs/): “Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies” -Nawal El-Saadawi, Memoirs from the Women’s Prison Read With Us In-Person or Online In Person Book Club So much more than a book club, this wonderful group of conscious, curious readers create a space on honesty and sharing that we always leave with new and critical perspectives.  Our monthly in-person book club is co-run with the lovely Sangeetha at @simple_sangee_writes, and focused on reads by cis and trans women, and non-binary people from the Global South and diasporas.  Some of the amazing titles we have read, cried over, laughed […]
- [About](https://writingwomen.co/about-2/): The Why of Us Writing Women began as a love letter to women from the Global South who wrote, recited, sang, inked, and stitched the stories of their lives into record. These stories are so often erased, or buried under a whole lot of history about straight white men, (and a few white women). But when we sought out these stories, we found incredible legacies of radical resistance, loving sisterhood, and solidarities across landscape and language. The more we learnt, the more hopeful and imaginative we became in building radical, loving futures.   The uncaring mechanics of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism […]
- [Home](https://writingwomen.co/): stories of radical feminism past, present, future about this space. Writing Women is a seed bank. Every story of radical feminism from our past and present is a seed that powers our imagination for the future. We seek to fill these pages with seeds of writings, oral tales, songs, poems and art that reveal resistance, sisterhood and decolonizing solidarity across borders of landscape and language from Palestine to Turtle Island, the Congo to Kashmir.  more Radicalize Your Reading In Support of Loving Futures Artwork for Palestine, Sudan and Liberation Everywhere more People and Groups we Love to Follow more Subscribe […]


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